Senior leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Andhra Pradesh unit on March 2 held in-depth discussions on the knotty issue of whether or not to tie up with the Telugu Desam Party (TDP)-Jana Sena Party (JSP) combine for the forthcoming elections.
While the party continues to weigh pros and cons of an electoral alliance, it is also quietly going about the task of zeroing in on candidates to contest all 175 Assembly and 26 Lok Sabha seats in the State.
“In the absence of any clarity on the alliance, candidates are being looked at to contest all the Lok Sabha and Assembly seats. We don’t want to be caught off guard in the event of being told to chart our own course. However, a section of the media is giving the wrong impression that the party has already decided against tying up with the TDP and JSP,” AP-BJP chief spokesperson Lanka DInakar told The Hindu.
Weighing pros and cons
On March 2, deliberations were held by senior leaders of the party such as national joint general secretary (organisation) Shiv Prakash, national executive members N. Kiran Kumar Reddy and Somu Veerraju, the party’s State president Daggubati Purandeswari and organising general secretary N. Madhukar, MP C.M. Ramesh, former Minister Ch. Adinarayana Reddy, former MLA P. Vishnu Kumar Raju and other senior leaders.
According to a party source, the leaders duly weighed in on the pros and cons of joining the TDP-JSP alliance, and also screened candidates from Uttarandhra and Rayalaseema districts who are aspiring to contest the Assembly elections.
A total of 2,500 applications were received from prospective candidates seeking tickets to 25 Lok Sabha and 175 Assembly seats. Front-runners among them were interviewed and shortlisted for approval by the high command. It is learnt that the party leadership has already zeroed in on some candidates for the MP seats, but is yet to finalise all of them.
The deliberations come a week after the TDP-JSP combine released its first list of candidates for 118 Assembly constituencies. The BJP continues to hold its cards close to the chest, even after JSP chief Pawan Kalyan’s statement that he had settled for fewer seats than he would have bargained for as he wanted to leave some room for the BJP, in the hopes of achieving his stated objective of consolidating opposition votes to defeat the YSR Congress Party (YSRCP).
